Wisconsin farmers say their crops are being weakened and ruined by nearly two months of wet weather. This year's harvest is a miserable, costly experience for those producers. The hot, dry conditions seen in July and August set the stage for the ...

Written By: rivertowns Administrator
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Oct 12th 2018 - 2pm.

Wisconsin labor officials on Thursday, June 15, announced a seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 3.1 percent for May. File photo

Wisconsin farmers say their crops are being weakened and ruined by nearly two months of wet weather.

This year's harvest is a miserable, costly experience for those producers. The hot, dry conditions seen in July and August set the stage for the damage done by heavy rainfall and standing water. The rain weakens the stalks and the wind can blow the crops down, making it more difficult for the machines to harvest them. One farmer says he could lose up to one-fourth of his total crop.

A Dane County Circuit judge has sentenced a Madison man to 15 years in prison for taking part in three armed robberies last year.

Twenty-seven-year-old Steven T. Johnson was also originally charged in the death of Michael Meaderds in one of the robberies. That felony murder charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement. The district attorney says Johnson wasn't the shooter, but he did pistol-whip Meaderds.

A federal judge has decided a state ban on insurance coverage for gender-changing surgery is a case of sexual discrimination.

A jury awarded an employee and a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison a combined $780,000 judgment. The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of cancer researcher Shannon Andres and graduate student Alina Boyden. The state of Wisconsin plans to officially terminate the ban next year.

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DNR relocates wandering moose from Clark County area

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has relocated a moose which was spotted wandering through yards in Clark County last month.

A woman in the town of Worden had reported the unwelcome visitor was eating her trees and watching her cows. The DNR says the same bull moose was rescued three years ago after it got entangled with some wife. The relocation was necessary when the large animal showed aggressive behavior on some farms near Fairchild and injured a horse.

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Merrill couple given federal sentences for pot possession

A Merrill man will spend 18 years in a federal prison and his wife was given a 10-year sentence Thursday.

Joel Helding and Valerie Flores-Helding entered guilty pleas last summer to charges they intended to sell almost 300 pounds of marijuana found in their possession. The two were in separate vehicles on Interstate 94 when they were arrested after a chase in January. The pot reportedly came from California.

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Suspect in 1975 murder case arrested in Michigan

The suspect in a cold case murder from 1975 is in a Michigan jail, waiting to return to Wisconsin.

Carol Jean Pierce went missing 43 years ago. Richard Pierce, her husband at the time, was taken into custody Thursday in Cheboygan. Agents from the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation and officers with the Sturgeon Bay Police Department made the arrest. Investigators say Richard Pierce was the last to see the victim alive, had motive and opportunity to kill her, and benefitted from her death.

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Badger football player enters not guilty plea to 2 felony charges

Wisconsin football player Quintez Cephus entered a not guilty plea during a Thursday hearing in Dane County Circuit Court.

Cephus is charged with two counts of felony sexual assault and has been banned from the football team. Two women say he assaulted them last April. Attorneys for Cephus have filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Wisconsin, claiming the player's constitutional rights were violated by the way the case was handled.

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Madison woman thought juveniles would kill her

Madison police have arrested three juveniles and are looking for a fourth for attacking a woman in a parking lot Wednesday night.

The 58-year-old victim tells investigators she was leaving work at about 10 p.m. when two teenagers approached her. While they were trying to take her purse, the victim was knocked to the ground and kicked. She says she thought her attackers were going to kill her. Two 13-year-old and one 15-year-old girls are in custody.